Advocates: “Proposal Would Manage to Slash Aid but Bolster Bureaucracy”

President Donald Trump’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget proposal, released today, proposes slashing domestic food assistance in SNAP by $213 Billion, $20 billion more than the proposal last year. The proposal would also replace SNAP (formerly called food stamps) EBT benefits for households receiving over $90/month in benefits with a shelf stable box of foods, to be selected by government bureaucrats that are supposedly equivalent to the displaced benefits.

In response, Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, a nationwide direct service and advocacy organization, issues the following statement:

“Though the recent bipartisan budget agreement means it will most likely never become law, President Trump’s new budget outline calls for even deeper cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), in addition to structural changes that could harm grocers and the nonprofits that serve hungry Americans. While it’s always shocking to see $213 Billion in cuts-- $20 billion more than proposed last year to one of the most effective anti-poverty programs available, the structural changes to SNAP will make it even harder to combat hunger in America.

It would require a massive new governmental bureaucracy to micro-manage the food consumption of low-income Americans. Amazingly, this proposal would slash food aid but somehow manage to grow the size of big government. There’s no way one can improve nutritional outcomes in families on SNAP by reducing the amount of money they have available for fresh fruits, vegetables, and milk. This proposal would add stress to the nonprofits that serve these individuals and hurt the grocery industry by taking SNAP participants out of the grocery store. The best way to enable low-income Americans to obtain healthier food is to increase the purchasing power of the SNAP program to enable them to do so.”